PLUMAGE

Plumage is a collaboration between Emer and Kate O'Daly with Love & Robots and costume designer Niamh Lunny created for ID2015, the year of Irish Design 2015. This collaboration looks at traditional costume and how it can be reinterpreted using new digital design and 3d printing technologies. It is an exploration of patterns in fabric such as knit and lace, as well as 3-dimensional structures and surfaces, and natural phenomena. The piece is designed as 3d printed chainmail with and upper layer of feathers to create a fluid wearable fabric. The feathers are integrated with the chainmail but can move independently of each other - creating movement, visual interest, and fluidity within the material.

We have previously experimented with 3d printing chainmail structures, as well as complex organic patterns. The Plumage Cape extends those explorations to construct a piece of clothing that has over 6000 moving component parts, is approximately 465mm in diameter and can be 3d printed all in one piece. Plumage was unveiled at Dutch Design Week in October 2015.